Spraybooth Questions (with many apologies)

Do you have a window you can run a vent out of? I just did that with mine and it works fine.

I think if you search around for a booth, you will find that they are a little on the expensive side. You can make one on your own but if a downdraft type is your only option, you might have some problems. I don't recall anyone making a downdraft type on their own. I think you could get creative and rig one up but the filters, if you use the ones from artograph, are pretty expensive. If you only shoot acrylics, you could probably get by with furnace filters. Enamels and such are another matter.

From what I have read, if you are going to run the exhaust through pipe, you are limited to approx 15' to the exhaust end. Each 90 degree bend takes 3' off of the length.

If money is not an option, I bought mine from pace industries. I did search around and was going to get the artograph but the price of the filters scared me a bit. Anyway, stumbled on the booth from pace and it is very nice for the price. About $400.00 shipped. They have several sizes and the price would depend on the size. I bought the biggest one and it truly is the biggest one I could find. It comes with built in lights, and a variable speed fan control along with two switched outlets. It also has a work tray that you can snap to the front to give you a bigger working area. It also uses normal furnace filters.

Bottom line is if you have the time, you can probably make a nice one up on your own. My time is limited so I had to tap into my mad money and buy one already built. Not sorry. Hope this helps you.

Chuck B.

dude, i kinda have the same prob, my work room has only one windo0w, and thats used for ventilation, so if i air the booth out the window, it has to be closed to prevent the spray blowing back in.... now i was thinking what if i ran the exhaust pipe in2 a bucket of water??? i know that would filter the air ( just like a bong does ;)), but would it remove all of the nasties??? thats what im thinking bout....

tominator,

Interesting idea. Rainbow vaccum cleaners (very high end dust catchers ) use a canister filled with water for the filter. Also, you can sand drywall with a contraption that filters the dust into a bucket of water using plastic flex pipe and come connectors. Cheap and very effective.

CB

yea, i know that that would work for dust particles, but im not to sure about thinners....
hoping that someone who is a bit chemistry minded will clear it up for me...

thanks!!

elfkin,
Downdraft booths are very practical and would suit your purposes quite well. Artograph makes a couple really nice downdraft units with "inline" charcoal filters that adsorb the organic vapor fractions and return clean air to the room. No ducting required. In addition, because downdrafts use gravity and the heavy nature of organic vapors, the recommended airflow drops considerably. Downdrafts typically follow recommended airflow rates of about 50 fpm, as compared to a face velocity of 100 fpm as used in conventional or laminar flow booths. Lesser airflow and no ducting results in smaller fans, and typically, lower cost.

Gip Winecoff

I don't think most fans would have enough power to exhaust through water. I would think the air would just back up & go nowhere. Think about how much you'd have to blow with your mouth through a dryer hose to get bubbles. I may be wrong, though.

Topher,

Just a comment on your response to the water filters. I made reference to a dust filter that you can get for sanding drywall. I have personally used this and it works very well. You hook the contraption to a shop vac. The water filter is in a large plastic bucket that collects the dust. Don't know how this would work on the vapors from enamels and such.

The artograph is the only downdraft booth I was able to find. Micromart had something similar but I think it was an artograph with different packaging. The cost of the filters was a turn off to me. Also, for the price the large one sold by Pace was much bigger with more options.

hey can someone plz pass me the pace website or where i could get some pics of their booths??? or even better, a online retailer of spraybooths(there has to be one, its the internet!:)) with pics??help me get some ideas about spraybooths....

This might help you

http://www.pacepaintbooths.com/pace/

I just wanted to thank everyone for replying so quickly. I'll check out the Pace website. A question for Styrene: do you know who carries Artographs...it can be click or mortar. I saw one in a Blick's art supply store for around $250 USD; is that a good price or should I (as Smokey Robinson would put it) better shop around. Thanks again for the response!

elfkin,
You can go directly to the Artograph site: http://www.artograph.com/spray_systems.htm
Their least expensive booth is MSRP $279. If you can get it from Blick at $250, that sounds like a pretty good deal, and is not a bad price considering what other spray booth systems can cost. Hope this helps.

Gip Winecoff

You can also get a artograph from Dixie. Given the price, they should not charge any shipping.

Thanks very much for the info Styrene and Cbreeze. I'm pretty sure that the low end Artograph is what I saw at Blicks...I'll be stopping by there after work tomorrow. I'll also check out the Dixie site. Thanks very much for your help.

elfkin

Hope I'm not too late on this, but I searched around quite a bit when I got my artograph, and here's what I ended up getting:

Artograph 1520 - purchased from BearAir - $200 +15 shipping (price now $220)
Metal hood - purchased from Madison Art Shop - current list $80 (+15 shipping?)

At the time, this was the cheapest I was able to find after a couple months of searching, though the prices have since gone up.

Note that the in the low $200 range, the 1520 will probably only have a cardboard hood. Some of the places that cost more also throw in the metal hood, which naturally raises the price, though I found it was cheaper to purchase them separately. For example, Testor's lists the 1520+ metal hood for $500. Micromark lists the combo for $300 before shipping. (http://www.ares-server.com/Ares/Ares.asp?MerchantID=RET01229&Action=Catalog&Type=Product&ID=82427)

If I remember right, I paid a little under $300 after shipping purchasing them separately (but like I said, the prices have since gone up)

Hope you're happy with whatever you end up with.